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Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

wsj.com

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Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#91

Post by rsanek »

allemagne wrote: post #78
MichaelApproved wrote: post #25

The solution isn't hoping the free market would solve this with a competing platform. The solution is to create regulations & laws that prevent this behavior. You're either a platform/retailer or you're a manufacturer. You don't get to be both because we see the perverse incentive that happens when it's allowed.

>You're either a platform/retailer or you're a manufacturer. You don't get to be both Ok, done. Now what are manufacturers supposed to do when Amazon and Walmart start bullying them some other way? You just made shipping their product directly to the customer against the law.

No, that's not what a platform is. You can always sell your product direct to consumer. You just can't be the intermediary for both your own and other companies' products on the same site.

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#92

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

so_tired wrote: post #15

Important line from the article > a practice at odds with the company’s stated policies... > .. as stated to congress

You want to start a discussion about company stated policies and how each person feels they do or do not live up to them? That could go on for quite awhile!

edit: it was mostly a joke, calm down.

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#93

Post by ghostwriter »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #49
ses1984 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case it's shitty to be a supplier but isn't this great for the consumer?

In the short term it creates competition and lower priced products. In the long term, Amazon undercuts suppliers who have to exit the market. That reduces competition and allows Amazon to charge more.

> That reduces competition and allows Amazon to charge more.

that never happens, unless there's a regulation in place that prevents new sellers to get into the market as quickly as they can. When a price for the product begins to rise, it attracts new sellers, as now there's a wider price range to position your competing product.

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#95

Post by luckylion »

dubcanada wrote: post #74
MichaelApproved wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the short term it creates competition and lower priced products. In the long term, Amazon undercuts suppliers who have to exit the market. That reduces competition and allows Amazon to charge more.

You're focused to much on Amazon. Every company does this just go to your local Walmart, everything is white-label. A law like this would have to be applied to them as well.

> A law like this would have to be applied to them as well.

You say it as if that was a bad thing. More competition is good for the consumer, bad for the oligopolists.

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#96

Post by beagle3 »

chairmanwow1 wrote: post #76
MichaelApproved wrote: post #25

The solution isn't hoping the free market would solve this with a competing platform. The solution is to create regulations & laws that prevent this behavior. You're either a platform/retailer or you're a manufacturer. You don't get to be both because we see the perverse incentive that happens when it's allowed.

What really is the issue? That Amazon is leveraging its success to be successful? It's unfair that Amazon is able to see that a product category is doing well so it invests its own money into manufacturing a product to sell through its site? Do you really think that if Amazon couldn't use the data from its own site that it wouldn't procure it elsewhere? Before any product is developed there is extensive market resear…

It is not illegal to have a monopoly; but it is illegal to use a monopoly you have in one area to get an unfair advantage in another.

Amazon may or may not legally be a retail monopoly - I do not know the answer. But your question can be rephrased for any monopoly and the answer would be “monopolies should be punished for leveraging their monopoly power in other markets, because that ruins the market for everyone else.”

Free markets and democracies are good at a lot of things, but self preservation is not one of them - therefore you need anti-freedom laws.

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#97

Post by [deleted] »

timdev2 wrote: post #44
graeme wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every retail store does this.

Many retail stores do this to their vendors. Amazon does it to it's "sellers", which are really just a category of "customers". As an amazon seller, you pay for the privilege of selling through their platform.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#98

Post by kharms »

chairmanwow1 wrote: post #76
MichaelApproved wrote: post #25

The solution isn't hoping the free market would solve this with a competing platform. The solution is to create regulations & laws that prevent this behavior. You're either a platform/retailer or you're a manufacturer. You don't get to be both because we see the perverse incentive that happens when it's allowed.

What really is the issue? That Amazon is leveraging its success to be successful? It's unfair that Amazon is able to see that a product category is doing well so it invests its own money into manufacturing a product to sell through its site? Do you really think that if Amazon couldn't use the data from its own site that it wouldn't procure it elsewhere? Before any product is developed there is extensive market resear…

>What really is the issue? That Amazon is leveraging its success to be successful?

The issue is that over the long term, Amazon is lowering the ROI on innovating and taking risks in the consumer goods space. It's able to do this because of its dominance as a marketplace.

Re: Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

#99

Post by tomohawk »

whoisjuan wrote: post #17

Stating the obvious I guess. All retailers do this and create their own white-label brands to squeeze profit from well-performing categories. Target, for instance, is very upfront about it and they have like a gazillion white-label brands that compete in hundreds of categories, which makes it very gray for the customer. Does anyone really think that any retailer launches a competing product in a category without look…

Amazon is a monopolist in several categories. Different rules apply to monopolists than other organizations. A basic constraint is that a monopolist may not use their position of monopoly in one area to give them an advantage in another.

https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/amazon-is-a-monopo...

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